Has Lewis Dunk run over Gareth Southgate’s cat?
When it became apparent that UEFA Nations League matches were going to take place in September, I swore to myself that we would ignore the inevitable of Lewis Dunk not being called up by England.
Why waste time and energy kicking off about it when it has been obvious for some time now that Dunk is not Southgate’s cup of tea? A manager not liking a player for unfathomable reasons happens, much in the same way that everyone used to love Cheryl from Girls Aloud but I always preferred Nadine.
Personal preference and all that. Southgate’s personal preference might have been weird to us Brighton fans, but crying from the rooftops about it or wishing failure on England because the manager does not share our opinion of Dunk seemed a futile exercise.
There had always been mildly understandable reasons too for Dunk being overlooked for all but two England squads in the preceding two years, certainly up until around last October anyway.
In 2017-18, it was that Dunk had very little experience of playing in Southgate’s favoured back three. In fact, his only experience of it had come when Gus Poyet He Who Must Not Be Named experimented with a 3-5-2 at home to Millwall in the 2012-13 season.
This was a complete disaster. Brighton were woeful for the opening 39 minutes until Dunk was hauled as part of a tactical reshuffle with the Albion 1-0 down. The less said about it, the better.
It was when Southgate abandoned 3-5-2 in favour of 4-3-3 post-World Cup that Dunk received his autumn call ups, making his England debut against the United States in November 2018.
By the time that the next international break rolled around in March, Brighton were on that dire run of two wins in 18 which ultimately cost Chris Hughton his job. Every Albion player was out-of-form and it was unsurprising that Southgate turned away from Dunk.
2019-20 was when Southgate really started to take the piss though. Dunk matured into an even better player once he had been handed the Brighton captaincy following Bruno’s retirement, enjoying the best year of his career.
He was even voted as WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Season, a fact that Southgate seems to have scandalously overlooked – as if the readers of a three-time Football Content Awards nominated website do not know their football.
Dunk also dispelled the one final excuse wheeled out against his selection – the question marks about his ability on the ball. Southgate wants England to play out from the back and those who had only seen Dunk defending for his life in Chris Hughton’s somewhat negative set up might have wondered if he was cut out for playing possession football at the highest level.
Seasoned Brighton observers knew just how good he is with the ball at his feet, as any young player who broke through under Poyet had to be.
Under Graham Potter, Dunk got the chance to show the rest of the footballing world that he could play in triangles and set up goals with raking 35 yard passes which split defences in two.
His assists against Watford on the opening day of the campaign and for Aaron Connolly’s second in the 3-0 October win over Tottenham Hotspur were utterly beautiful.
Had it been a Liverpool player called Virgil playing those sorts of passes, then they would have been replayed on a continuous loop on Match of the Day and Sky Sports for weeks after. Jamie Carragher would have needed a cold flannel across his forehead to calm down.
Southgate has now run out of excuses not to select Dunk. And that is okay. The view was formed at WAB Towers that Dunk’s talents being constantly overlooked was actually a good thing.
Rather than risking picking up an injury in a pointless game as England hammer a collection of postmen and window cleaners from San Marino, Lewis Dunk gets a fortnight off every time an international break rolls around, leaving him fresh for Brighton duty.
Who cares if he does not play for England again? Well, it turns out I did when the squads for the matches against Iceland and Denmark were revealed.
Ignoring Dunk is one thing, but the real issue is with the players Southgate he has selected over the Brighton captain. It makes the decision an absolute farce.
Tyrone Mings’ constant inclusion often receives a lot of ire from Sussex, but Mings does at least have that whole left footed thing going on.
He being in the England squad is almost acceptable if you acknowledge that partnering a right footer with a left footer is desirable at centre back. With English central defenders who are left footed being a rarer than an honest politician, Mings gets in almost by default.
There are no excuses though for two of Southgate’s other choices. Michael Keane might be the best part of two years younger than Dunk, but he hardly set the world alight at Everton last season. A strange selecyion.
Then there is Eric Dier, who has spent most of his career as a central midfielder. According to Transfermarkt, Dier played 16 times as a holding player and 13 times at centre back for Tottenham Hotspur in 2019-20.
Being a part-time defender who sometimes wades into the stands to fight supporters seemingly makes you better than Dunk in the eyes of the England manager.
And Southgate wants us to believe his squad is picked based on form and who is playing regularly in a set position for their club? Do me a a favour.
Harry Maguire’s selection was not without controversy either. Now, I like Maguire. He has made an undoubted difference to Manchester United both as a defender and a leader and a lot of the criticism he cops from supporters of other clubs as a lumbering oaf is often unfair.
Southgate must have known though how unwise it would be to pick a player who had been arrested in Greece just days before the squad announcement.
There is more to that incident than meets the eye. The Greek police’s version of events hardly seems trustworthy, if Maguire was defending his sister from being harassed then he was simply doing what most people would in that situation and the fact he has been declared guilty by the authorities within four days smacks of a lack of fair legal process.
Even so, it was an unnecessary risk from Southgate. Especially that guilty verdict arrives a few hours after the squad is announced, forcing Southgate into an embarrassing u-turn with Maguire withdrawn from England duty.
Dunk is not the only player to fall foul of Southgate’s bizarre selection policy. Burnley defender James Tarkowski is arguably even harder done by than Dunk given that he was part of a defence which helped put goalkeeper Nick Pope in golden glove contention right up until the final game of the season.
Connor Coady has not missed a single minute of league action for Wolverhampton Wanderers in the past two seasons, helping the Old Gold to seventh placed finishes in 2018-19 and 2019-20. Coady is yet to receive even a call up to the squad, so Dunk is at least doing a bit better than the Wolves captain.
As for Jack Grealish, if he wasn’t such a prick then his non-selection would be the biggest travesty of the lot. The Aston Villa captain kept the 1982 European Cup Winners in the Premier League almost single handedly last season, scoring 10 times and registering eight assists in 41 games.
When asked about Grealish receiving a call up a year ago as the 1982 European Cup Winners prepared to make their top flight return, Southgate said that the Villa captain had to gain Premier League experience before he would consider him for England duty.
Grealish has spent the past year not just gaining experiencing, but excelling. Brighton fans know this better than most, seeing as we witnessed him notch three times against the Albion last season.
So who gets called up in Grealish’s place? Kalvin Phillips, a midfielder from newly promoted The Leeds United who has not played a minute of Premier League football in his life. Work that one out. I can’t.
It would be easier to accept the non-selection for England of the likes of Tarkowski, Coady, Grealish and ultimately our man Lewis Dunk if the players they were being overlooked for were clearly better.
None of them are though, which is the most frustrating thing. How can you accept it and get on with life when there is no rhyme nor reason for Lewis Dunk not making the England squad when he has outperformed Mings, Keane and Dier in the centre backs stakes last season?
The only possible explanation for Dunk’s continued exclusion? He must have accidentally ran over Gareth Southgate’s cat or something. It certainly is not a decision based on football.
